OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Tyrese Haliburton, judging by his play, was predetermined to pick a fight with history. He showed up to Game 7 with malice in his spirit for any idea he doesn\u2019t belong in the annals of basketball history. He opened the scoring for the Indiana Pacers with two deep 3s. He missed his third attempt and stepped back even further and drilled another one the next time.<\/p>\n
And as he roared at the sea of blue inside Paycom Center, with noticeable patches of Pacers gold, his intentions were clear. This was a heist. Haliburton showed up to take what many thought didn\u2019t belong to him. He was on the porch of history. Opened the screen door of legendary.<\/p>\n
Then, as if fate didn\u2019t appreciate his audacity, as if the basketball gods ruled agony must precede glory, his right Achilles snapped.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this moment, my heart dropped for him,\u201d Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not fair. But competition isn\u2019t fair sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing about this felt fair. Haliburton earned a right to take down this season\u2019s giant. He deserved a chance for one last heroic ending.<\/p>\n
But on a simple action, sport flexed its sovereignty, even its mercilessness.<\/p>\n
Haliburton caught a pass at the top and made a basic step backward with his right foot as he started to go left to evade the approaching defender. But as he planted, the tendon ruptured violently enough to see the vibration.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe started screaming,\u201d Pacers guard Ben Sheppard said, \u201cand it\u2019s just terrible when someone like that goes down. We know he\u2019s going to come back better than ever. We\u2019re just praying for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
With five minutes left in the first quarter and his Pacers even with the mighty Thunder, Haliburton was denied entry into the hallowed hall of Game 7 legends. He lay on the hardwood floor, tears in his eyes, agony unfurling from his soul. He wailed as he pounded his open right hand on the door of history.<\/p>\n
His cries were inaudible as he yelled, \u201cNo! No! No!\u201d Most couldn\u2019t hear the smack of his hand on the hardwood. But the visual was loud enough. Such determination, thwarted so coldly. A beautiful arrogance humbled so emphatically.<\/p>\n
Basketball is brutal. Game 7s deal only in extremes. Triumph or tragedy. Hallelujah or heartbreak.<\/p>\n
Haliburton\u2019s fate came before the final horn.<\/p>\n
He knew immediately what happened. Not only is most of the basketball fandom well-versed in detecting a torn Achilles, but also he\u2019d been battling a strained calf since Game 5. He spent this week managing the injury, including a 23-minute stint in Game 6. He played with this risk, that he could blow out his Achilles and flush next season down the drain with it.<\/p>\n
But Haliburton\u2019s resolve outweighed the risk. He counted the cost and still pursued greatness with peril possible. He wanted to shower himself, his family, his Pacers, in the effulgence of Game 7 glory. He\u2019s been called overrated. He\u2019s been declared below a superstar. He\u2019s been expected to be on vacation for the last two months.<\/p>\n
As the adopted son of the Hoosier state, by decree of its historic love for the game, and as the beneficiary of the burden Reggie Miller once carried, Haliburton went for it. He wanted it badly, for every Pacer that ever wanted it, and for every hooper who didn\u2019t fit the traditional mold, and for every player willing to play the antagonist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pain he puts in every day, every night, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s (anybody) else in the world that wanted it more than he did,\u201d said veteran James Johnson, the 38-year-old Pacers protector who helped Haliburton to the locker room. \u201cI\u2019ve been on plenty of teams, and I\u2019ve seen guys sidelined because of that same injury, and he wouldn\u2019t let that stop him from helping us.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Haliburton left the court a sympathetic hero, carried off by his teammates, his right foot dangling in the air as the arena began to realize the seriousness of his injury. A towel draped over Haliburton\u2019s head, which hung as low as his spirit.<\/p>\n
He entered the arena bent on making his name immortal. He left the arena having succumbed to his mere mortality. The volatility of humanity on display.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to see nobody get hurt, but \u2014 I don\u2019t know \u2014 we needed Ty out there,\u201d Pacers forward Obi Toppin said. \u201cFor him to go down, (in) a game like that, that s\u2014 sucked the soul out of us. I ain\u2019t gonna say out of everybody, but I don\u2019t feel like I played good because I was thinking about it the whole day and I felt like it was my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n
That this was predictable only makes his sacrifice more valiant. Achilles tears are regretfully trending. Haliburton became the third player to suffer the injury in these playoffs.<\/p>\n
The Pacers carried on valiantly. Their relentlessness put a scare in the Thunder.<\/p>\n
But moving forward, Indiana loses the face of its franchise for next season, which severely hampers its chances of getting back to this stage. Perhaps that made Haliburton\u2019s decision to play too risky. The price for his choice is two chances at a ring, even if the next one is predisposed to a litany of attacks. This NBA Finals stage is guaranteed to no one.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s part of what made his pain palpable. As much as possible, we know Tyrese Haliburton. We know the pleasure he gets from disrupting the order of things. He may have two voices but one clear mission: To put his name where they said it shouldn\u2019t go.<\/p>\n
Haliburton is an important figure in this league. His jovial spirit, his authenticity, his willingness to engage, his appreciation for the theater of it all are gifts to the league.<\/p>\n
Haliburton is the face of one of the NBA\u2019s most stubbornly lovable underdogs ever. The Pacers embody the very parity the league desires. The suspense of uncertainty. The thrill of novelty.<\/p>\n
Haliburton is the quality control for a new era of superstars. As LeBron James and Stephen Curry fade from the top, and a new crop vie for the crown, he\u2019s there to test their mettle, to measure their quality. He\u2019ll expose who isn\u2019t ready. He\u2019ll take down whoever isn\u2019t worthy.<\/p>\n
He was so close to upsetting the story arc of the Thunder, the NBA\u2019s newest darlings. He was on the porch, prepared to kick in the door.<\/p>\n
But when it was over, and the Pacers\u2019 magical season was done, Haliburton found himself standing outside a different door. With crutches helping hold him up, and a boot on his right foot, he waited for his teammates. One by one, he greeted them, each player hugging their star, outside the locker room. Where defeat would settle in. Where an uncertain future would start taking shape.<\/p>\n
When the last player went through, Haliburton turned and went to join them in the struggle. As fate would have it, that door, he could walk right through.<\/p>\n
(Photo of Tyrese Haliburton: Kyle Terada \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Tyrese Haliburton, judging by his play, was predetermined to pick a fight with history. He…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1267,1260,1268,1269,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-8325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-indiana-pacers","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","11":"tag-opinion","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114733410355454821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}